Information processing terminals such as personal computers (PC) generally check data received over a network for viruses. In these years, image forming devices so called MFPs (Multifunctional Peripherals) equipped with virus check function have become popular in view of security. When receiving data such as print data over the network, the image forming device checks the received data for viruses.
It, however, takes time for check for viruses if every data received by the image forming device is checked for viruses in real time. It takes time until starting printing based on the print data when the print data is received by the image forming device.
The data once checked for viruses may again be checked for viruses at the information processing terminal. In this case, the information processing terminal determines if data such as a virus definition file is rewritten to latest data. Only if the data such as the virus definition file is rewritten to the latest data, the data is checked again for viruses. This known technique is introduced for example in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP 2007-200102 A. According to the known technique, when the data such as a virus definition file is not rewritten to the latest data, the data is not checked again for viruses. This saves time required for the second check for viruses.
According to the known technique, the information processing terminal once checks the data received over the network for viruses, and the second or later check for viruses is omitted. To be more specific, the above-described known technique does not enable to omit the first check for viruses which is carried out in response to the receipt of the data over the network. Even by applying the above-described known technique, time from receipt of the print data to start of a process to produce a printed output cannot be shortened.